Found a complete headliner, need some help

[zac]

On spring break I found a complete headliner, got it for $40. Bad news was it was 2000 miles from my house, cost $126 to ship it in the huge 54 pound crate I made to protect it. For 4 pieces of 40 year-old cardboard.

I had never even paid attention to what was left of the crappy headliner in my '70. We busted up those old plastic chrome retainer strips during removal, they were just so brittle. Got home and realized the strips are still installed and intact in my truck. But how do I get them off without screwing them up? The only idea I have is to remove those metal end caps and just pull enough of the strip off the metal bow to get at the screw on each end. Take out the bow with the strip still attached. Then I can slide the "new"sections of headliner in and slip the bow back in place and resecure the screws. But one of the strips will have to come off to get the last section of headliner in. I just have no idea how to make it happen without breaking it. If you have any tips or ideas I'm all ears.

I'm wondering if that typical warping and bowing these headliner do is because of moisture. Should I paint the back of the sections to try and reduce the interaction with moisture? This headliner came from a climate that gets less than 20" of moisture annually. Here in KY we had more than 60" last year.

Need to make some minor repairs to some dings on the new headliner. Its not exactly a space age material, would white glue do the trick? Anybody tried something else that worked?

Also, that rear metal strip holding the rear section of headliner (right above the back doors) really gave us fits during removal. We pretty well hacked up the one on the donor truck. Obviously I don't want to do that on my truck, so if you have any tips on dealing with it, let me know.

Any other pointers appreciated.